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Billions of Pounds Worth of Assets Left Uncollected in the UK : Stern Levenson

Surrey, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/22/2013 -- It’s happened to everyone at some point – a forgotten pension, bank account or insurance policy. Over the course of the years, most people make a wide range of financial commitments, and unless you have a dedicated accountant, it can be difficult to keep track of all of each and every policy, account and investment. It is estimated that there are approximately twenty billion pounds worth of unclaimed assets in the United Kingdom. However, for those who have lost the details of these financial assets, recovering them can be a challenging task, which is why asset recovery companies such as Stern Levenson have become so popular.

The BBC was recently contacted by Rod Hewitt, regarding his parents’ life insurance policies, which had been lost several years ago. Hewitt explained that when he was a child, a man would come to their door every week and collect a life insurance payment from his mother. Hewitt’s parents continued to make weekly cash payments towards these policies for most of their lives, up until they were about seventy years old, which was about two decades ago. However, due to their failing memories, neither of Hewitt’s parents could recall the name of the life insurance provider. On top of this, his father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, had thrown out all of their old paperwork, so there was little to no information which Hewitt could use to track the policies down.

Hewitt began to get in touch with some of the UK’s main insurers and also attempted to find the policies via the Unclaimed Asset Register – this is an online service which allows people to check whether investments can be traced. However Hewitt’s efforts proved to be fruitless, which is why he decided to turn to the programme Money Box, run by the BBC. He explained to the programme presenters that his parents had lived in Pegswood for most of their married life.

The presenters then got in contact with Robert Dixon, a local historian, who was familiar with the door-to-door insurance salesmen that used to work in the area -this is precisely the type of creative research which asset recovery firms like Stern Levenson specialise in. With the help of Dixon, Hewitt discovered the policies, which had been sold by Co-operative investments and after some thorough searching, the policies were discovered. For those who find themselves in a similar situation, but who would prefer to carry out their search privately, companies like Stern Levenson can help to track down and retrieve valuable assets.

About Stern Levenson
Stern Levenson call upon 50 years of experience in the global securities markets to locate and recover your unclaimed assets. These may be in the form of dormant bank or building society accounts, insurance policies, share dividends and a variety of other investments.